December 2009
Right, 02 plate Mx5 soft-top ( vinyl )
I've been left the car for 2 weeks by a friend - she's gone on holiday and left me to repair it !!!
So far, ive unblocked the rear drain pipes on BOTH sides, after water was found in the front drivers footwell, and behind both seats. Also the "shelf" carpet was wet at the corners by the seatbelt posts
I've also unblocked the sills on both sides, and flushed them out well, by removing the sill plates, and flowing approx 10L of hot soapy water through the holes. I still need to wash the inside of the front wings - I was planning on using a pressure washer through the gap when the door is open.....I've also wired the channels down the door closings, and cleaned all the seals round the hood+doors.
There is a small tear in the side of the vinyl roof, approx 5mm long - WILL a inner tube repair patch suffice for the time being - until a proffesional repair is carried out ??? it'd be on the inside, a layer of glue on the roof, let it dry, another layer on the patch, before putting it on, and clamping it until it dries.....It wont be a permanent repair.
Its clearly been damp inside this car for some time, as white round patches have formed in a few areas of the rear deck carpet, and the roof has white mildew forming on it. I'll be looking to remove this during the drying of the carpets. a few points i'd like advice on
Mould removal : Will miltion steralising soloution work well ?? i was thinking of spraying it on the inside of the roof, leaving for 30mins, quick scrub, and a wipe off - then a quick spray of auto-gylm vinyl care. I'll be using that on the outside too.
Carpet drying : I presume i'd have to cut the carpet at the bulkhead in order to remove it???......I was thinking id be better to remove the seats, centre console, seatbelts etc, lift the carpet UP towards the roof, and stick a couple of fan heaters in it for a day or two....I'll be treating the carpets with milton, hovering them with a aquavac, prior to drying.
Anything i missed ????
Thanks in advance, Read more
After switching alarm on and leaving car, the alarm comes on after a few minutes and the interior light also comes on. After the alarm is turned off you can hear a relay clicking from the passenger side of the car.
Any ideas would be very appreciated.
Thanks Read more
Alarm sounding after switch on could indicate that the system is seeing something not fully closed or a fault with one of the sensor switches.On the speedo dial is a door/boot /bonnet open signal,does this go out when ignition switched on?Also posiible fault with power sounder.Modern alarm systems do not use a volt drop circuit.hth
I had the cambelt changed on my 1997 1.25 16v Zetec engined Fiesta by a small local French garage, billed for 2.5 hrs labour (total 110?). Has anybody got the book time?
I thought that the book time was 3.5 hrs (with P/S), or is my memory failing? Rhetorical question, I know it is!
A good result, because otherwise the car would have been left in an airport carpark at 90?.
I supplied the Gates cambelt kit - which had been riding in the boot for the last 18 months as a guarantee that terminal failure would occur. Read more
Am I correct in believing that the S was only used for a short time
and the later 1.25 engines are different?
The Zetec-SE engines (AKA Sigma engines) were badged as Zetec-S. They are one and the same engine and have come in 1.25, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.7 litre capacities (Puma only)
Any 16v Fiesta (that's not an XR2i or RS1800) will have a Zetec-SE of some flavour under the bonnet.
There is another thread running re high power light bulbs in which it seems to imply that bulbs are now available in right or left hand dip. This seems likely to me in that most cars now have comletely bank smooth lenses and I presume the dip pattern is generated by the bulb - is this the case?
If it is it would seem to be much easier for the car manufacturers to arrange for the bulb, in its holder, to rotated a few degrees so that the beam would change from UK pattern, flat on the right up a bit to the left ,to Coninental, flat on the left up a bit to the right. This could be achieved by rotating the holder about 15 degrees anti clockwise.
Funny old thing, I seem to recall that some cars had a little toggle, years ago, which achieved just this effect. If changing bulbs was easy I would rather do that for a trip across the Channel than mess about with stick on beam deflectors.
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I have a Skoda Roomster I exported to Portugal. They changed the headlights with the "flatening" bar on the headlights for registration over there. Now I need to conver it back to UK headlights since moving back. You say you managed- can you please say how and if possible provide a photo? Many thanks!
hi i have a 54 plate zafira design . the problem i have is the heater is so quiet it seems that its not working but it is, i cant here it on 1-3 but it is working and on 4 i can only just here it is this common or have i got a faulty one cheers. ps only had the car a month and was like this when i got it. Read more
thanks for all your help i have got a pollen filter on the way see how it goes once fitted.
Hey all,
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 design hatchback - error code P0115 - Thermostat engine fuel tank
Friend had some work done at a local garage, but when they got the car back the error light was still illuminated. The local garage said they do not have the equipment to reset the lilght and have advised to disconnect the battery for 4 hours and this will extinguish the light. A couple of questions:
1. Is the garage talking pink fluffy dice about the 4 hour thing?
2. Is there any other way of getting rid of the light ie ignition turns, sticker over the light etc.....
3. If we do disconnect the battery, then we will require the radio code (we don't have one ) Any ideas the best place to get the radio code.
Thanks for any help offered!!! Read more
nice one. Thanks guys.
My son's old Xsara doesn't circulate the water properly. The thermostat opens OK and we've flushed it through. The flushing water runs through the heater OK and out of the anti-airlock 'bicycle valve' on the exit pipe with gusto. The rad is ok.
It seems as though the impellor of the water pump isn't working. Can this happen?
I suspect there is a tiny head-gasket leak as it loses small amounts of water and it seems to be overly pressurised. Could such pressure overcome the pumping action of the impellor? We would be very grateful for any expert answers to these questions. Read more
Just in case anyone's interested - my diagnosis was correct. It looks as though some sort of plastic compound has dissolved/disintegrated leaving five thin flat steel blades, to which it it was glued, spinning uselessly in the water. The absent plastic stuff should have done the actual impelling.
I have never seen this type of water pump impeller failure described anywhere but it must be pretty common as there are lots of these engines around in Peugeots.
I thought some of HJ's resident experts might have mentioned this - perhaps it needs publicising - or perhaps it really was a rare one-off.
Just a little game to test your knowledge of your local roads.
Travelling with SWMBO on the M60 this morning, she drove for a change. This gave me time to look around. It's a route we use all the time.
It has a long slip road and starts at Junction 4 Eastbound M60 and winds it's way up and down, over and under other slip roads, railways and M60 itself, coming out on the A34 southbound.
Just out of interest, we clocked it on the odometer from the start of the hatchings to becoming part of the A34 proper.
We clocked it at just over a mile and 3 quarters !
Are there longer ones ?
Ted Read more
I occasionally use Reigate and always wonder why it is quite so long.
At this point the M25 is rising up the scarp face of the North Downs and the gradient must be nearing the maximum allowed in the standards. The slip road rises to up even further, to the roundabout above the motorway, and so the slip road was always going to be very long.
However it was much shorter before the widening/rebuilding of the M23/M25 junction. Also the first half mile or so of the sliproad is at much the same level as the main carriageway.
My best guess is that it is an attempt to get the traffic onto the sliproad before the steepest part of the hill. If this was not done the slowing lorries would make it more difficult for the faster traffic to get across to the sliproad due to the speed differentials.
A friend of mine bought the above car to-day. he phoned me tonight to inform me the (30 A fuse) for the central locking keeps blowing. on checking AD locations vol 4, it lists a door function control module drivers side. Does anyone know of any issues with these or maybe someone has come across the same problem. any feedback would be greatly appreciated
Best Regards mickeybo
{Edited header, some punctuation added to make for easier reading, and 'txt' talk replaced with proper words} Read more
I would suggest you start by checking the wiring that runs up the hinge to the bootlid.Often find broken,shorted or chafed wires.hth
I had the thermostat replaced on my second hand Zafira replaced under warrenty because the temperature guage never reached 90 degrees, even in the middle of summer in traffic jams it seems to stay at about 85.
I have had the car back for nearly two weeks and now and it never gets above about 83 degrees which is even worse. For example
I drove 90 miles yesterday on a mix of country, town and motorway roads, the outside temperature was about 10 degrees and it never went above about 83 degrees which seems to me too cool
Every car I have owned; once warmed up runns at 90 degrees and I am concirned that this will increase my fuel consumption.
My questions are:
What is the correct running temperature of the water in a Zafira 2.2 SRi once warmed up.
What effect will this have on the fuel consumption
I'm guessing that the guage or thermometer may be at fault or the garage did not do the repair.
Any thoughts?
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I think Vauxhall have had loads of comments and queries regarding coolant temperatures, this is probably why my wife's new 1.9cdti has no temp gauge at all!!
The 2.0dti that she had, used to run at a steady 85 to 87 degrees C, but on a cold morning, it could take 7 miles to reach that from start up. The heater was well warm long before the gauge moved.
Browse
Mazda used to do a repair kit for vynl hoods. It depends upon where the split is. If it's in a creased area where the hood folds then I'd say that nothing would repair it other than a large patch to go well past the crease area.
I tried mending a few in my son's MX5 but came to the conclusion that the hood had had it. We fitted a new mohair hood in the end.